Our Mission

Thames Ward Community Project (TWCP) aims to be a catalyst for sustainable community-led change. The project brings together schools, community groups and residents from across the Thames ward of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to develop initiatives that will create:

A STRONGER, MORE COHESIVE COMMUNITY

The community will be stronger and more cohesive, with pride in its diversity and the leadership and organisational capacity to influence change, to seize new opportunities and build a sustainable future.

A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY

Residents, especially the elderly, will enjoy better physical and mental health and well-being, through exercise, better eating, reduced isolation, mutual support and better services. 

A MORE CONFIDENT AND SKILLED COMMUNITY

Residents, especially young people, will gain skills and feel more confident about their future employability and life chances. 

A CLEANER, MORE ATTRACTIVE ENVIRONMENT

The image of Thames ward will improve – people will perceive it to be a cleaner, more attractive environment that encourages neighbourliness and makes better use of local facilities, open space and buildings.

A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST

By the end of Year Three (October 2020), the project established a resident-led Community Development Trust to continue this work into the future and to ensure that the initiatives that have emerged over the past three years are sustainable. 

Establishing a CDT will provide a more viable, long-term framework for community participation and support for community enterprise. The project will help our partners broker their investment and intentions with the whole community; help residents to access new training and job opportunities; identify and support community enterprises; generate additional income for a sustainable future, and help provide a strong community voice in relation to the development programme. This represents an ambitious vision for the project, but one we think is achievable. It is an idea that residents welcome and it will enable the school, having launched and nurtured the project, to become a partner in a broad-based community organisation, which is a more sustainable way forward.